Students take gap years and ‘neglect studies’ as survey suggests Edinburgh rents skyrocketed by nearly two thirds in a year

14 November 2024, 12:22 | Updated: 14 November 2024, 12:31

A student housing justice group has found nearly three in five students in Scotland’s capital city are worried about where they’re going to live next year, as private rents have risen across the board.

SLURP has exclusively shared its annual survey results with LBC, suggesting the average monthly rent in a shared private tenancy is now £690.36 for students across Edinburgh’s four universities – up 10.4% on last year.

Private halls of residence have hiked rents by a massive 64% since last year, taking the average to £1,028 a month.

Heriot-Watt University student Jamie has told LBC he is still staying with friends two months into the academic year because he has struggled to find a lease.

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“I have been under pressure to, like, make money so I have been partially neglecting my studies to work more so I can have more money to afford everything,” he said. “Now I’m trying to take a gap year, so I won’t need to be as worried about it next year.”

The non-means tested student loan in Scotland equates to £810 a month. SLURP’s volunteer coordinator Noah Brown has told LBC that leaves students in an impossible position: “That private rental agreement is 85% of your student loan and the private student accommodation one… that’s 126.9% of your student loan, like, just on rent.”

Mr Brown supports the idea of introducing an ‘Edinburgh adjustment’ providing a higher maintenance loan to students studying in the Scottish capital, like that offered to those who study in London.

“I definitely think it would be very beneficial for almost everyone who’s getting a student loan for it to be more,” Jamie agreed. “Because then you wouldn’t just be using it on rent, you’d be able to buy yourself food as well. You’d be a lot less stressed about everything.”

Currently, Jamie is considering moving out of Edinburgh to Livingston where rents are lower and travelling in for his lectures. But the reliability of public transport has given him pause.

Mr Brown is urging the Scottish Government to consider students within the new Renters Reform Bill as it’s debated in Holyrood.

“When a student tenant is negotiating a price with a landlord their only other option really is this really expensive private [halls] accommodation, and this allows landlords to charge a higher price because you have no other choice,” he said.

“I don’t want people to view student housing interests as conflicting with the community because, like, we are members of the community and unregulated purpose-built student accommodations raise the rent for everyone.”

In the same survey, 11.8% of respondents said they are ‘very worried’ about where they will live next year, with 47.4% saying they are ‘slightly worried’.